Should You Move to Mexico? Things to Know

Part 1 of a longer series about whether you should move to Mexico.

The other day an email landed in my inbox from an old friend/colleague who, prior to our move, had expressed their own possible desire to move to Mexico. I’m excerpting only part of their email here to protect their privacy and identity, but they said:

Is life in MX everything you thought it would be?!?!  I was so impressed with CDMX that I want to talk my husband into moving there! 

Thought I would check in and get your POV about expat life in MX before I begin pitching it to my husband.

The basic answer is it’s been great and we love it here. It’s certainly not perfect, but then again nowhere is. So yes, so far, A+, would move here again.

But the question of whether a person should move to Mexico is a huge one, worthy of hours of discussion and many thousands of words of explanation, caution, and description. I knew this would be a hard question to answer, but it was only when I ended up with six different drafts of this newsletter that I realized I can’t truly do this question justice in a single post. But we have to start somewhere, so let’s dive in!

Should You Move to Mexico?

This question can’t be answered with a yes or no. Should you move to Mexico? Maybe! Our ability to make a life here has been impacted by a great many circumstances very particular to us, including our house, our ability to work remotely, and both the state of Oaxaca and the very particular corner of it we occupy. Someone may find themselves facing problems we haven’t. Or, depending on their circumstances, they may find things are much easier and more familiar than they have been for us.

Whether you should move to Mexico depends on your specific circumstances, and anyone who tells you a blanket yes or no is either being inconsiderate, obtuse, or has ulterior motives.

Things To Know if You Want To Move to Mexico

• Mexico Is Gorgeous: Mexico’s one of the world’s most desirable tourist destinations, and for good reason. It is one of the top five most biodiverse countries in the world. The beaches are amazing and the country also has rain forests, pine forests, deserts, and high deserts. It is a very, very beautiful country with a huge variety of biomes. It also has lovely towns, cities, and villages.

• The Food Is Astonishing: Mexico’s food (and booze) is world famous for a reason and is also much more diverse than many people realize. Many people are only familiar with Tex-Mex style cuisine (tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and the like) but the food culture here goes far deeper than that. The food from the coast is quite different from that of the mountains, and Mexican cuisine makes use of seafood, wild game, native fruits and vegetables, foraged herbs, insects, and far more besides what you may already be used to.

• You’ll Need a Community: People need community wherever they go, but having likeminded people around you becomes even more important when you’re living in a culture that is not your own. Before you move you’ll need to consider how you’ll make friends and if the place you’re moving to will have a community you can integrate into. This doesn’t mean you need to find somewhere where the people are just like you, or even that you need other gringos to be happy. Rather, you just need to consider whether you are culturally compatible with where you want to move and if you’ll be able to find people who will embrace you (and if you’re willing to do the work for that to happen).

• Mexico is Very Unequal: Mexico has significant income inequality and racism is an issue, as is colorism. As an expat (the polite word for an immigrant) even if you have a relatively low salary in the U.S. you will still likely have significantly more money, privilege, and resources than many people around you, meaning you may experience a sudden change in social class. Also, thanks to Airbnb and a glut of foreigners looking to make Mexico their home, housing prices have skyrocketed, particularly in places like Mexico City, Mérida, and San Miguel de Allende.
  
  It’s up to you to figure out how you feel about the place you would occupy in Mexican society and how you would want to navigate your particular situation. But it’s important to know ahead of time that you would likely have a lot while the people around you would have much less.

• Quality of Life Can Be Extremely High: Piggybacking off the above entry about inequality, if you’re moving to Mexico from the U.S. or another wealthy country you very likely will be able to live a life of luxury. The average household income in Mexico is $16,269 a year. This means that if you move to Mexico while working remotely and are able to maintain your U.S. salary, you will almost certainly be in an income bracket that effectively makes you wealthy. You will be much more able to buy or rent a large and comfortable apartment or home, to eat routinely at very nice restaurants, to hire people to clean your house, maintain your garden, provide child care, or even drive your car for you. For many people it would be the type of luxurious life that would be impossible to attain in the U.S. This is also why so many people retire in Mexico.

• Mexico Has a Water Crisis: It cannot be emphasized enough how serious the water crisis is in Mexico. This year, 2024, there are parts of the city Oaxaca de Juárez which haven’t had public water for over 50 days. Moving to Mexico means understanding that depending on where you live there is a significant chance you may go for extremely long periods of time without publicly supplied running water.
  
  Of course, there are work-arounds. You can buy water from a pipa, which is the local name for a water truck, which is put into a cistern which sits atop your house giving you running water. But it’s not cheap and even the pipas are in short supply.
  
  The water crisis in Mexico is also an emotionally charged political issue. In Oaxaca water is diverted into areas that are wealthier or which cater to tourists, contributing to anti-tourism and anti-immigrant sentiment.

• Medical Care Is Better Than Ever: Many people go to Mexico for what is referred to as “medical tourism,” most often for cosmetic surgery. However, it’s a little known fact that Mexico’s medical standards have greatly improved over the past two decades. This is because in 1999 Mexico adopted the standards set by the Joint Commission on Accreditation, the same system used to accredit American medical training and hospitals. As a result medical care in Mexico, particularly at private hospitals (of which there are many), can be as good or better than what you may be able to find in some parts of the United States. Medical care is also extremely affordable, as is medication. Mexico also has world-class dentistry, another draw for medical tourists.

• You’ll Need to Learn Spanish: While English is spoken in Mexico (along with other languages), there are a great many people who speak either only Spanish, or Spanish along with their indigenous language or dialect. You can kinda/sorta get by on English, but to actually live in Mexico it’s essential you learn Spanish. Plus, do you really want to just “get by” in your new home? Hire a tutor, download Duolingo, do drills online (I really like Conjuguemos) and learn to speak Spanish.

• Mexico Is (and Isn’t) Safe: Safety in Mexico is a very complicated issue and is something I’ll write about much more extensively as a stand-along subject.
  
  Mexico has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and in 2023 recorded over 30,000 murders (Deaths per 100,000 population: 25). The United States had around 26,000 murders (deaths per 100,000 population: 7.8). These two numbers together means the murder rate in Mexico is a bit shy of four times higher than it is in the United States. But, Mexico doesn’t have mass shootings; in fact, they’re so unusual they’re referred to as being “gringo style.” Instead, the majority of murders in Mexico are cartel-related, and cartels specifically avoid targeting foreigners and gringos with violent crime because of the strong international reaction it provokes. Broadly, this suggests that unless you’re doing something that brings you into contact with a cartel (such as buying or selling drugs or hiring prostitutes), or if you have moved to a region of Mexico with a lot of cartel-related crime, you probably won’t be the victim of cartel violence.
  
  But Mexico does have crime. This includes robbery, burglary, mugging, pickpocketing, sexual assault, being shaken down by police officers for a bribe, and a growing amount of white collar crime, such as fraud.

There’s Much More to Say

There’s obviously much more to say about whether Mexico is the right place to move to, and topics which require their own individual posts include:

• Safety

• Buying a home

• Maintaining a home

• Buying a car (or moped)

• Healthcare and medicine

• The climate and weather

• Mexican banking and transferring (and storing) money safely

But for the moment, I think the above topics cover major initial questions. If I’ve missed anything or you have a thought or question, let me know in the comments!

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